1. Field of the Invention
The present invention relates to an image conversion device which changes a blur state in image data, an image conversion method, and a recording medium.
2. Description of the Related Art
There is available a technique called blind deconvolution, which separates one image data into a blur filter and clear image data.
Blind deconvolution estimates original image data and a blur filter from only input image data on the basis of a model in which the data obtained by applying a blur filter to sharp original image data is input image data. Reference 1 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,154,574) discloses a technique associated with blind deconvolution used when blur is uniform in entire image data.
Reference 2 (U.S. Pat. No. 6,928,182) discloses a technique which is used for edge sharpening by estimating blur around an edge detected from one image data and moving a luminance value from one side of the edge to the other side.
The technique disclosed in patent reference 1 is based on the condition that blur is uniform in entire image data. For this reason, it is difficult to apply the technique disclosed in patent reference 1 to image data in which different objects are arranged in the depth direction, and focal blur greatly changes.
The technique disclosed in patent reference 2 aims at only sharpening, and hence no consideration is given to the generation of image data in which the manner of blurring is changed from one image data.